I was walking in Barnes and Noble earlier today, and I happened to open a book that said the following:
"'And they lived happily ever' after is one of the most tragic sentence in literature. It is tragic because it tells a falsehood about life and has led countless generations of people to expect something from human existence which is not possible on this fragile, failing, imperfect Earth."
While I was standing there staring at these words on a page, I began to think:
Maybe, just maybe, whoever wrote this went through some tough times in life and love. Shaking my head and cursing at the paper cut I got from that particular book, I placed it back on the shelf. It wasn't until I was halfway home that these words began spinning around in my head.
Is it possible to have that perfect movie/fairytale-like ending? Meet your Prince Charming fall in love and get married?
What happens after the narrator says "And they lived happily ever after"?
No one ever mentions the people that get married and soon realize that there is no "and they lived happily ever after"...(e.g. women that get abused, men whose women left them, cheating on either side.... the list is endless)
There is life after those magical words...there are kids, promotions, new houses...thinking clearly, everyone wants a happily ever after, but in reality, that can really be a smack in the face...
What do you think? Can there be happily ever afters?
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Comments (83)
I think so. However, it can only be seen in retrospect I think. You can't really get married and say "We're living happily ever after!" immediately because it doesn't make sense.
I do believe though that life can be happy after marriage and when looking back, one can truly say, "We lived happily ever after... and continue to do so!" That is, until the couple dies. Then, others will tell about how the couple "lived happily ever after."
There's a reason those types of stories are called Fairy Tales...
Depending on the people, yes. I've known elderly people who had been married for years upon years, from the moment they were like eighteen; and they were still happy together. Sure, there are tough times in the relationship, but if people really try (Depending on the tough times, of course.) they can get over them.
Sure, for some people. They may not used the term "happily ever after" to describe their life. Instead they describe their life as lucky or bless or got what they ever want out of life, fortunate. The list go on and on.
*sighs*...someday...we have our own happy ever afters...
i don't think it's about living happily ever after,
but being able to happily live with whatever ever after you're given
I think there can be happily ever after's, but people focus on the negatives so much more than the positives that..well, it seems impossible. And who knows, maybe after the fake first happily ever after, there will be a real first and last happily ever after. Boy, that was a horribly constructed sentence..Haha. Anyway, I just watched Tinkerbell. It was so cute. The underlying message was something about accepting one's self and making do with all one has. Right click, copy, paste. =]
Of course. It's rare that things go perfectly, but there are always some people who come out happy in the end.
i agree with imgoingto____fly
It may not be perfectly happy all the time, but there are happy marriages that do last until death. Fairy tales aren't too realistic, which is why they're called fairy tales. A "happily ever after" like that is rare, if it exists at all.
I think that in terms of fairytales, happily ever after is finally being able to be with the one you love and helping each other through whatever you encounter; working through all of it together. It's about finding who you are and finding your way into love. To me, happily ever afters are made of whatever you want it to be. It's spending the time you have with the one that makes you happy, the one that will respect you, the one that will stick with you through thick and thin, and that person who will love you for everything about you. And that's something I think that every fairytale has a piece of. What they do for us, is to keep our hopes alive and to show us that it is possible for us to have happily ever afters. It's just that sometimes, you have to fight for it.
And to me, that's definitely something we can all believe in, and something worth waiting for.
Someday, I will have a happily ever after of my own. Those very fairytales I grew up will have kept the hope for it alive. Because they will have given me the strength to believe in the possibilities of it. And I will thank them when it finally happens for me.
People think that 'happily ever after' is the destination of life, but it is actually an attitude of living.
To feel happiness in a relationship/marriage needs a tremendous amount of work, comprimise and sacrifice. When two people get married, happiness don't just come to them, instead they need to cultivate their relationship to find happiness within themselves and in each other. Life may throw stones at them from time to time, and they might be beaten down, but they will overcome the obstacles together through understanding and communication. And that process is called 'to live happily ever after'.
We shouldn't take this simple phrase at face value, because there is so much more underneath it.
There's a book called "Just Ella". It's a sequel to "Cinderella". I think that's how a lot of people's lives turn out. What you perceive to be a happily ever after turns into anything but that.
Yay! You got on datingish! <3 ya!
Yes.
I think the mistake comes in thinking that "Happily ever after" will come without any effort.
reminds me of jane austen.. most of her books have all this drama leading up to a happy marriage and then nothing is heard from those characters again. definitely doesn't happen like that in real life. ask any married couple. =P
I do believe there are fairy tale endings. Its not common, but i do think it exists.
We need to change our views on 'happily ever after'. It's the overall picture that should be happy, knowing that even the most suited of couples in 'perfect' relationships have to work at it.
My parents ARE living "happily ever after". I'm really happy for them. Mine is in the making.
"Happy is what happens when all your dreams come true." After all your dreams come true, you live happily ever after. When you dreams change, so does your happy ending.
..stop being such a fucking pessimist
The fairy tale "happily ever after" leads you to ignore the personal details of the peoples's lives after the story ends. It's the opposite of the feeling you get when you're stuck in traffic, and you look out at the sea of cars around you, and wonder to yourself, "where is each one of these people going? What will they do when they get there? Do they have loving families at home?"
Life happens and relationships fall apart, but "happily ever after" in the real world is when you look back at all the hard times in life and feel thankful that you made it when others didn't.
I am not going to even think about that since I have not gotten to the part where I am seeing someone.
Can someone tell me how you know the person you meet is a person you should date?
I believe it can happen actually. My grandparents give me hope. They have been together for 50 years.
I find it hard to believe there is love for me at times .... but I like to think one day it will happen to me. My boyfriend and I will have been together 4 months on the 4th of March ... maybe we'll fall hard for each other one day. Right now we are taking it one week at a time and not moving too fast.
To me there is no 'happily ever after' but I think anyone can achieve their own 'happily ever after'. There is no prince charming but their is your prince charming. I do believe that everyone's different and are given different things that are hopefully in favor of their lives.
It's good not to be so naive and know reality. But it really doesn't hurt to be optimistic and know that life is what you make of it.